I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mirrors for commercial vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a horizontally and vertically movable remote controlled mirror unit for a commercial vehicle such as a truck or a bus.
II. Description of the Relevant Art
With the ever-increasing application of commercial-sized vehicles to a variety of tasks, the dangers inherently associated with the movement of such large vehicles concurrently increases. In backing-up, turning or lane changing maneuvers of large vehicles considerable risk is involved because of the driver's limited view.
In response to this, trucks and buses are often fitted with large, flat mirrors to either side of the truck cab. These mirrors are known as the so-called "California mirror".
The application of these mirrors resolves certain safety problems by giving the driver of the commercial vehicle a wider field of view. However, the view is still limited particularly with respect to trailer-hauling trucks. The trailers of such rigs cut off the view of the driver when, for example, going around a corner.
The problem of the flat mirror is not limited to trucks. Applied to non-trailering vehicles such as buses, the flat mirror provides a view to the rear of the bus, but fails to provide a view to the sides of the bus, thus severely restricting its utility.
In response to this inherent weakness, one or more concave mirrors are often fitted by the flat mirrors or to the front of the vehicle's fenders or both. While more or less solving the immediate problems of side-to-side vision, this multi-mirrored arrangement creates new problems in that the driver's field of view is terribly complicated by the complex and confusing array of mirrors.
Accordingly, the prior approaches to solving the problem of providing a rear view mirror system that is both non-intrusive and effective have failed.